Bad Religion Tickets

Short Biography
In a world ruled increasingly by superstition and intolerance, Bad Religion's rousing wall-of-sound punk seems about as necessary now as ever before. It is the impassioned sound of reason, anthems of a bittersweet idealism and a guarded hope set to propulsive guitars and charging drumbeats. And while most groups with even half the artistic output have long ago morphed into stylistic self parody, Bad Religion is currently surging forward with a renewed creative intensity.

Their fourteenth album, entitled New Maps of Hell, is both a nod to the band's defiant past and an undeniable step forward in the evolution of a genre they helped to define. While many of the new songs are ...

Short Biography
In a world ruled increasingly by superstition and intolerance, Bad Religion's rousing wall-of-sound punk seems about as necessary now as ever before. It is the impassioned sound of reason, anthems of a bittersweet idealism and a guarded hope set to propulsive guitars and charging drumbeats. And while most groups with even half the artistic output have long ago morphed into stylistic self parody, Bad Religion is currently surging forward with a renewed creative intensity.

Their fourteenth album, entitled New Maps of Hell, is both a nod to the band's defiant past and an undeniable step forward in the evolution of a genre they helped to define. While many of the new songs are as brutally fast and unflinchingly heartfelt as anything the band has done before, the record is also filled with unexpected sounds, inventive rhythms and lush pop choruses.

"I think we're reaching back to our roots as a garage band and doing some really aggressive music," guitarist and co-songwriter Brett Gurewitz says. "But we're also trying to look forward and write some really interesting new rock songs."

After some years away, Gurewitz has been back in the fold for the previous two records, Process of Belief and The Empire Strikes First, both discs widely accepted as a return to form for the veteran band. He is again accompanying his longtime friends, co songwriter and singer Greg Graffin and original bassist Jay Bentley. The (slightly) newer band members read like a punk rock all star team, with guitarist Greg Hetson of the legendary Circle Jerks and Brian Baker of hardcore pioneers Minor Threat. The latest addition being a startling young drum prodigy and sought after session drummer named  Brooks Wackerman.

For this latest record, Bad Religion convened with renowned producer Joe Barresi at a downtown Hollywood recording studio just blocks from so many of the nightclubs and halls where the band first inspired legions of like minded young malcontents amidst the vibrant eighties Los Angeles punk scene.  Back then, the band members had been young teen rebels from the dystopian suburbs of the nearby San Fernando Valley, leather clad intelligentsia lashing out at a pervasive culture of greed and conformity. And while the band might now look less like brash young upstarts and more like hip college professors (singer Graffin is, in fact, a college professor) - there's still a whole lot to rail against and the band is undeniably up to the task.

"I think at heart, Bad Religion has always been anti establishment and about open mindedness," Gurewitz says. "Since we we're kids, this country has vacillated between varying degrees of anti intellectualism, machismo and religiosity - maybe now more than ever. And we write with a secular humanist world view which really goes against all that."

This sentiment is echoed in his lyrics to the blistering state-of-the-art hardcore of Welcome to the New Dark Ages. As a frantic wall of guitars power a rousing sing along chorus, Graffin's surprisingly soulful voice calls out: "Welcome to the new dark ages / I hope you're living right / these are the new dark ages / and the world might end tonight / So how do you sleep - there's nothing to keep. This is deep / because we're animals with golden rules who can't be moved by rational views."

It is this world view which infuses so much of New Maps of Hell. But there is also a sense of inner turmoil absent from the band's previous efforts. Where before there had been a defiant questioning and call for change, there is now an underlying sense of lost idealism - an acknowledgement that all the angry protest songs in the world could not prevent the mess we're in. And as unsettling as this sentiment might be for the longstanding firebrands, it has undoubtedly inspired a vital and emotionally charged record.

"Living in this world can leave you with a pretty bleak outlook," Graffin says, at the recording studio. "But then we still have that same naive hope we had as angry idealistic teenagers, that human beings will hear this music and think, ‘This isn't right and I'm gonna do something about it. There's a song called Requiem for Dissent on this record which is actually one of the more uplifting songs - the idea behind it being to try and raise the dead rebel from his grave."

And while a stunning new record from one of the most influential bands in recent history may not be enough save this messed up world, it might very well inspire a few defiant souls into action. Watching the band rip through a live set in front of a few thousand exhilarated fans days after completing New Maps to Hell, the sheer power of Bad Religion's music is unquestionable. The kids are pressed against the barrier, many with eyes closed and fists raised, singing each lyric as if it means the world to them. The entire affair has an intensely inspirational and cathartic air, like some riotous punk rock baptism in the name of free thought and dissent.

"I think a lot of our fans are just angry nerds like us," Gurewitz says afterwards. "And that's really who we write for. Being a humanist and an intellectual is about as rebellious as it gets these days."

"In the end we do this because we still care deeply about inspiring people," Graffin adds. "I know that may sound a little lofty, but the truth is when I was a teenager, music was only thing that gave me hope in this world." 

In-depth Biography
Out of all of the Southern Californian hardcore punk bands of the early '80s, Bad Religion stayed around the longest. For over a decade, they retained their underground credibility without turning out a series of indistinguishable records that all sound the same. Instead, the band refined their attack, adding inflections of psychedelia, heavy metal, and hard rock along the way, as well as a considerable dose of melody. Between their 1982 debut and their first major-label record, 1993's Recipe for Hate, Bad Religion stayed vital in the hardcore community by tightening their musical execution and keeping their lyrics complex and righteously angry.

Bad Religion formed in the northern suburbs of Los Angeles in 1980, comprising guitarist Brett Gurewitz, vocalist Greg Graffin, bassist Jay Bentley, and drummer Jay Ziskrout. Gurewitz established his own record company, Epitaph, to release the band's records. Between their self-titled EP and their first full-length record, Pete Finestone replaced Ziskrout as the group's drummer. How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, their debut album, was released in 1983 and gained them some attention on the national U.S. hardcore scene. After its release, the group's lineup changed, as bassist Paul Dedona and drummer Davy Goldman joined the group.

In the meantime, the band's lineup was undergoing some more shakeups. Gurewitz had to take 1984 off to recover from various substance abuse problems, leaving Graffin as the band's only original member. In addition to Graffin, the 1984 incarnation of the band featured former Circle Jerks guitarist Greg Hetson, bassist Tim Gallegos, and returning drummer Pete Finestone. Bad Religion's next release, the harder, punkier Back to the Known EP restored faith among the group's devoted fans. After its release, the group went on hiatus for three years.

When Bad Religion returned in 1987, the band featured Gurewitz, Graffin, Ziskrout, Hetson, and Finestone. They released Suffer the following year, a record that re-established the group as prominent players in the U.S. underground punk/hardcore scene. They followed with No Control (1989) and Against the Grain (1990). By the time of their 1993 album, Recipe for Hate, alternative rock had become popular with the mainstream; in addition, the band's following was quite large. These two factors contributed to Bad Religion signing a major-label contract with Atlantic Records.

Recipe for Hate was originally released on Epitaph, but it was soon re-released with the support of Atlantic. The group's first proper major-label album was 1994's Stranger Than Fiction; it was also Gurewitz's last album with the group. Before the release of Stranger Than Fiction, Epitaph had an unexpected hit with the Offspring's Smash, causing Gurewitz to spend more time at the label; reports also indicated that he was displeased with Bad Religion's major-label contract. The group replaced Gurewitz with hardcore veteran Brian Baker for their supporting tour, which proved to be their most successful to date.

Bad Religion released their second major-label album, The Gray Race, in early 1996, but it didn't achieve the same results as its predecessors. No Substance followed in 1998, and two years later the band returned with New America, which was produced by Todd Rundgren. Although it featured Bad Religion's best work in years, Atlantic subsequently dropped the band, and they returned to Epitaph. In the summer of 2001, Gurewitz rejoined the lineup after a six-year absence, and the group began work on The Process of Belief. The album appeared in February the following year, and was widely hailed for its recalibration of the Graffin/Gurewitz axis.

Bad Religion's next project was the remastering and issuing of their early catalog. The discs began appearing in April 2004 with the release of Generator and How Could Hell Be Any Worse? The former included relevant 7" material from the era, while Hell took the place of 80-85, which had previously accounted for the band's earliest output. Both were fully remastered, as were subsequent reissues of Suffer, No Control, and Against the Grain. Bad Religion then returned in June of that year with The Empire Strikes First, a typically acerbic LP that reflected the surge of anger and defiance in the punk and indie music communities toward the policies of the Bush administration. The powerful New Maps of Hell, released in 2007, continued on the path of discontent and railed at what the band saw as rampant apathy in the face of global crisis. Coinciding with their 30th anniversary in 2009, the band announced they would be going into the studio to record their 15th studio album. The album, titled The Dissent of Man, was released the following year on Epitaph. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi